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National Assembly of Quebec

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The National Assembly of Quebec at night
The National Assembly of Quebec at night

In Quebec's British-style parliamentary system, the National Assembly is where the provincial legislative power resides. Since the abolition of the Legislative Council in 1968, the National Assembly of Quebec has all powers to enact laws in the provincial jurisdictions defined in the Constitution of Canada. The current president of the National Assembly of Quebec is liberal member Michel Bissonnet.

History

The Legislative Assembly was created in Lower Canada with the Constitutional Act of 1791. It was abolished from 1841 to 1867 under the 1840 Act of Union which merged Upper Canada and Lower Canada into a single colony named the Province of Canada. With the 1867 British North America Act, the Legislative Assembly was restored to former Lower Canada, today the Province of Quebec. The original Quebec legislature was bicameral, consisting of the Legislative Council and a Legislative Assembly.

In 1968, Bill 90 was passed by the government of Premier Jean-Jacques Bertrand, abolishing the Legislative Council and renaming the Legislative Assembly the National Assembly. Before 1968, there had been various unsuccessful attempts at abolishing the Legislative Council, which was analogous to the Senate of Canada.

In 1978, television cameras were brought in for the first time to televise parliamentary debates. The colour of the walls was changed to suit the needs of television and the salon vert (green hall) became the salon bleu (blue hall).

Architecture

Built in Quebec City between 1877 and 1886, the present Hôtel du Parlement (Parliament Building) was designed by architect Eugène-Étienne Taché. It is a unique construction in North America with a Second Empire style of architecture. Its façade features a pantheon representing important events and people in the history of Quebec.

Elections

General elections are held at least every five years. Any person holding a Canadian citizenship and who has resided in Quebec for at least six months qualifies to have his or her name entered on the electoral list.

Quebec's territory is divided into 125 electoral districts. In each electoral division, the candidate who receives the most votes is elected and becomes a Member of the National Assembly (MNA). This is known as the first-past-the-post voting system.

Normally, the leader of the political party with the highest number of elected candidates is subsequently is asked by the lieutenant-governor of Quebec to form the government as premier.

Current members

File:Queassemblyofficial.PNG

Official seating plan of the Quebec National Assembly.

At the present, the 125 seats of the National Assembly are distributed as follows:

Party Number of seats Number of women Party Leader
Parti libéral du Québec 73 22 Jean Charest
Parti Québécois 46 16 Bernard Landry
Action démocratique du Québec 5 1 Mario Dumont
Independent* 1 0
Vacant 0 0
Total 125 38
  • Libéral member Daniel Bouchard (Megantic-Compton) is sitting as an independent while being under inquiry for former job.
  • Libéral member Russell Williams (Nelligan) resigned on March 9, 2004. Yolande James (PLQ) won the by-election with 52.6% of the vote.
  • Libéral member Marc Bellemare (Vanier) resigned on April 28, 2004. Sylvain Légaré (ADQ) won the by-election with 46.8% of the vote.
  • Libéral member Christos Sirros (Laurier-Dorion) resigned on June 17, 2004. Elsie Lefebvre (PQ) won the by-election with 46.1% of the vote.
  • Parti Québécois member André Boisclair (Gouin) resigned on August 17, 2004. Nicolas Girard (PQ) won the by-election with 57.8% of the vote.

Premier Jean Charest has called a by-election in these four districts for September 20, 2004.

Member list

Proceedings

One of the members of the National Assembly is chosen as the president of the assembly (a post called speaker in most other Westminster-System assemblies) by the premier with the support of the leader of the opposition. The president of the assembly is the arbiter of the parliamentary debates between the members of the government and the members of the Opposition. In order for a member to address a member of the other side, he or she has to speak through the president of the assembly.

See also

External links


Canadian legislative bodies
Parliament of Canada
Legislative assemblies
Indigenous assemblies
Defunct bodies
Provincial upper houses
Territorial bodies
Pre-Confederation bodies
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